High-tech deals bring new and old-school jobs

In the last few months, Tennessee has grown its “green” street cred dramatically.

Late last year, the state announced that it had struck a deal with solar panel manufacturing leader Hemlock Semiconductor, which will build a major plant in Clarksville. A few months later, that announcement was followed by the news that a German competitor of Hemlock will build a plant in Bradley County.

Both deals made national news and helped bring to the fore the notion of “green-collar jobs” in Tennessee as a means of replacing some of the roughly 100,000 manufacturing jobs the state has lost in the last decade. In a 100-page report released late last year, the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development extolled the virtues of all of these new jobs and cited impressive projections about the growth potential and benefits of these green positions moving forward.

“Green jobs or green-collar jobs provide hope at a time when workers see blue-collar and even professional and service jobs being reduced,” the report read. “To many, green jobs mean local jobs, created by money staying in the community and creating a multiplier effect locally.”

But amid the buzz and hype surrounding environmentally focused jobs, a few basic questions need to be asked: Just how different are green-collar jobs? And how well suited is our work force to take on many of these new positions?

The booming green economy is often embodied by sexy new jobs such as solar panel installers, biofuels processing technicians and energy system retrofitters. Those professions require a fair amount of specialized training and in some cases, additional degrees. The needs of a number of the manufacturing and assembly jobs of Hemlock and Wacker Chemie require similar educational initiatives.

One such initiative is already in motion near Hemlock’s new home.

“It will take all kinds of workers to design, build and keep the facility running,” said Jarrod Erpelding of Dow Corning, one of the investors in Hemlock. Those workers will range from degreed chemical technicians to certified journeymen, down to various other more standard manufacturing positions.

Among the group of workers will be specialized chemical plant operators. To bolster the supply of those workers, Erpelding said that the company has begun to work with Clarksville’s Austin Peay State University in creating a program to train people seeking those positions.

The school, which Hemlock cited as a major factor in picking Tennessee and was the site of the new plant’s announcement, has worked with the Tennessee Board of Regents and the Tennessee Higher Education Commission to offer an associate degree in chemical engineering technology. In addition, the state has agreed to provide $6.4 million to help APSU develop the facilities required to run the program.

Back in January, university President Tim Hall said in a New Year’s blog post to the APSU community that construction on the new lab and classroom facilities was “slated to begin immediately.” The school has said that the company expects to employ 80 or more graduates from the program each year.

According to Erpelding, Hemlock has seen positive results in the past with similar programs it has in place in Michigan near Dow Corning’s corporate headquarters.

Additionally, the proximity to Fort Campbell was also seen by Hemlock as a likely font of workers. To that end, the base’s educational connections with Austin Peay continue to grow. The school recently competed its new Austin Peay Center at Fort Campbell, which is home to the School of Technology and Public Management. The venture comprises three departments: public management, professional studies and engineering technology.

According to Hall, enrollment in the previous term was up by more than 20 percent from the previous year, which served as the impetus for the school’s plan to expand its number of terms with additional offerings in the summer.

The growing number of more educated and skilled workers coming out of both the university and the base makes it seem likely that Hemlock will have no trouble finding the specialists it needs to keep its new facility running.

Not reinventing the wheel

But large green manufacturers also will need plenty of workers from more established careers like tool setters and freight workers. Almost two-thirds of the 31 types of jobs listed in the state report as being in demand by solar-energy firms are not considered to be high-skilled. It’s a group that includes machine setters, truck drivers and bookkeeping clerks, work that pays an average of $31,182 per year.

That number is not high-paying by most any measure, but it is still 40 percent above this year’s federal poverty line for a family of four. (The other 11 professions that are considered to be high-skill work — industrial engineers, sheet metal workers and chemical plant and system operators — pay an average of $44,935.)

In its report, the state says that growth expected from the renewable-energy sector may actually produce job shortages in various old-school engineering specialties as well as welders, electricians and other skilled trades. That would be welcome news for people laid off by old-school manufacturers, including automakers.

That dynamic also may help explain why Nashville State Community College, the region’s main center of vocational education, isn’t rushing to roll out new programs aimed at green industry.

Vice President of Academic Affairs Ellen Weed said certain classes that fit the green mold are being added as needed. But the community college currently does not offer an environmentally focused program at the school. An environmental degree program in place earlier this decade was spiked due to lack of demand from students as well as a dearth of jobs waiting for those students on the backside.

“We are expecting acceleration in the coming years,” Weed said of green-focused education, but cautioned that current job projections just aren’t there to justify a reinstatement of a full-fledged degree path.

“Even then,” she said, “it’s two years before we can turn out graduates in those fields even once we have a program.”